Machine to fiberize a dry sheet of pulp paper



W. P. FRASER MACHINE TO FIBERIZE A DRY SHEET OF PULP PAPER 2 Sheets-Shee 1 Nov. 1, 1955 Filed May 25, 1955 WILSON R v wgg A T TOR/V5 Y5 Nov- 55 w. P. FRASER 2,722,386

MACHINE T0 FIBERIZE A DRY SHEET OF PULP PAPER Filed May 25, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR.

BY F

A T TORNE YJ United States Patent Oflice 2,722,386 Patented Nov. 1, 1955 MACHINE T FIBERIZE A DRY SHEET OF PULP PAPER Wilson P. Fraser, Houston, Tex., assignor to Protect-Al Company, Houston, Tex., a partnership Application May 25, 1953, Serial No. 356,933

8 Claims. (Cl. 241-51 This invention relates to an improved machine for efliciently and quickly reducing Work to desired particle sizes, and this application is a continuation-in-part of pending application for patent Serial No. 185,625, filed September 19, 1950 and later abandoned.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple and low cost mechanism intended particularly for operation on pulp sheet paper of the type commonly employed for newspaper print and for breaking down the sheet paper fed thereto into fine dry particles or wool-like fibers which can be combined with a suitable binder, such as conventional thermo-plastic resins, to afford a composition from which various types of products may be molded, and in which the overlapping fibers, constituting the molded body, have high impact resistance to pressure.

A further object of the invention is to provide a machine which employs no liquids in the separating action but operates in dry air on dry sheet material and delivers dry particles ready for use without further working, by reliance largely on induced air circulation through the work chamber and which circulation carries along the Work, first by drawing in a continuous charge of air which pulls along the feed of paper, and finally by discharge through an outlet and ejecting therewith the particles of predetermined size.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine employing a high speed bladed rotor operating within a cylinder having an interior rough surface for co-operation with the rotor and the work swept forward by the rotor, for breaking up and subdividing work fragments severed from the incoming sheet material, such blades having associated with them loosely hung rings which are free under impact and inertia forces to shift radially and axially of the blades and thereby dislodge and clear work pieces which otherwise might tend to accumulate and clog the action of the machine.

A further object is to put to good usage the air currents generated by rotor rotation and this contemplates the provision of an air deflecting baffle to extend inwardly of the cylinder at the entry slot and immediately forward thereof in relation to the direction of rotor rotation, so that high pressure air in the region of the cylinder wall is directed inwardly at the entrance opening and thereby creates a low pressure area for sucking in outside air whose inward rush carries with it the sheet material and presents the same in a plane angularly disposed to the path of the blades, where it is struck by the blades and severed from the sheet. Internal air pressure is relieved by outflow at the cylinder discharge outlet and the outlet is covered by screen of pre-selected mesh, whereby work particles, which previously had been thrown outwardly and swept by the rotor along the cylinder wall until reduced to screen size, are entrained with the out going stream and ejected from the cylinder.

A still further object of the invention is to control the rate of feed of sheet stock into the machine in accordance with machine capacity, and that is accomplished by motor driven feed rolls placed outside the cylinder in advance of the entrance slot whereby to co-operate with air suction pull through the entrance opening and regulate to a given pace forward travel of the sheet material.

Additional objects and advantages will become apparent during the course of the following specification having reference to the accompanying drawing wherein Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine with parts shown in section; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary end view looking in the direction of the arrows on line 22 of Fig. 1 and showing the feed roll regulator; and Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section of the separating cylinder and its associated parts as taken along line 33 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, the supporting frame is illustrated as including a pair of spaced apart floor sills or blocks 11, carrying upright stanchions 22, and a pair of channel beams 3-3 bridging the space between the base sills 1-1. Removable bearing caps 44 at the top of stanchions 22 receive suitable bearings for the opposite ends of a power driven shaft 5 constituting a part of a rotor assembly. For an exceptionally long shaft it will be desirable to support the same intermediate its ends by a bearing housing 6 carried by an upstanding plate 7, suitably secured and braced on the channel members 3-3.

Resting on and suitably secured to the upper flanges of the channels 33 is a cylindrical housing or container occupying the space between the stanchions 22 and preferably being constituted by upper and lower semicylindrical sections 8 and 9 joined to each other on a horizontal plane and preferably hinged together along one side as at 10, to enable the upper half cylinder 9 to be swung open for inspection and repair of parts housed within the container.

At the division line diametrically opposite the hinge 10, the adjoining edges of the upper and lower half cylinder housing portions 8 and 9, are bent outwardly as at 1111 or otherwise formed in spaced apart relation to provide a horizontally disposed and longitudinally extending entrance slot. This inlet slot projects throughout the length of the cylinder or is of a horizontal width to pass a wide sheet or sheets of paper stock constituting the Work.

Circumferentially spaced from the inlet and preferably near the bottom of the cylinder is one or more outlets, two of such outlets being illustrated, both discharging downwardly through passages 12-12 conveniently formed of flexible fabric. The lower ends of the discharge passages 1212 open into a collecting box occupying the space between the support blocks 1-1 and provided in at least a portion of its walls with a perforated or foraminous sheet 13. The openings through the sheet 13 will be large enough to permit discharge of air While being small enough to obstruct and retain work particles for periodic removal.

The rotor assembly is intended for relatively high speed rotation through a belt drive transmission 14 from a suitable power source and the assembly preferably is of light weight construction. As shown in the drawing it comprises two axially aligned sub-assemblies, each including a series of axially spaced radial arms 1515 centrally secured to the drive shaft 5 by plates or collars 16-16. At opposite ends of the arms 15-15 there are two pairs of longitudinal extending flat blades set in planes tangential to the drive shaft axis, the pairs being diametrically opposite the axis of rotation and arranged to move in paths closely adjacent but spaced from the cylindrical wall of the container. The blades of each pair are radially spaced apart and are illustrated as an outermost blade 17 and an innermost blade 18. In the region between each pair of axially spaced radial arms 15, a thin metal ring 19 is fitted to that portion of each innermost blade 18 which extendsbetween each pair of arms. This ring 19 as best seen in Fig. 1, has an internal diameter greater than the width of the blade on which it is mounted so that it is loosely hung and can move freely in all directions on its embraced blade portion.

For co-operation with the rotating blades, the inner surface of the barrel is roughened. Conveniently the rough surface is in the form of liner 20 of a foraminous nature such as woven wire screen. Co-acting with the liner screen and, if desired, forming a part of it, is a length of screen 21 positioned over each outlet opening. By preference the discharge cover 21 is separate from the screen liner and is detachably secured over the outlet so that it may be easily replaced by other similar screens of different mesh. The selection of the screen covers 21 with respect to size of openings therethrough is important in that it enables complete control of the sizing of particles discharged from the machine. Thus it is possible to vary particle size from that of minute pieces of dust to shreds of considerable width and length. However, the sizing here under contemplation is more in the nature of a breakdown into fibrous, wool-like material.

The stock to be fed into the machine will usually be in the form of paper rolls and one or more of such rolls indicated at 2222 are suitably positioned alongside the machine on supporting rods carried by upright standards 2323. For minimizing cost of the stock, the paper rolls may be salvaged of remnant material remaining after a newspaper printing press thas completed a run from a large diameter roll of news print paper. In most instances, paper is fed from a large diameter roll into a printing press until the roll diameter approaches a few inches more than the core diameter. It is then economic to discard the small diameter roll and replace in the printing press, a fresh large diameter roll.

The discarded roll may be salvaged by the use of the present machinery and the remaining sheet stock reduced to usable fibers. The paper stock from the rolls 22 is first passed between a pair of feed rollers 24 on a pair of shafts having rotating bearing support in spaced uprights 25. One of the shafts may be belt driven from electrical motor 26 through a speed regulating gear box 27 of conventional design. The rate of feed of the paper may thus be controlled by the speed regulator 27 in accordance with the known capacity of the machine.

Co-operating with the power-driven rollers 22 for feed ing the paper stock, is the stream of air entering the inlet to the container in both sides of the sheet and induced by rotation of the motor assembly in association with a baffle formation or lips 28 projecting radially inwardly of the container in advance of the entry slot in relation to the direction of rotor rotation. Thus as viewed in Fig. l, the direction of rotor rotation, indicated by arrows, is clock-wise and the air current sweeping in clock-wise direction will strike the baflle 28 and be deflected inwardly, also indicated by arrows, toward the axis of the cylinder, thereby creating a region of low pressure Within the container at the feed inlet opening and drawing outside air through the opening. The incoming stream of air not only pulls or sucks the paper forward as per mitted by the feed regulating rollers 24 but it also maintains the paper taut in the path of the revolving blades 17 and 18, so as to be severed from the sheet. The paper fragments thus severed will tend to move outwardly against the roughened wall surface and be swept or drawn around by the rotor assembly (group of paper fragments 29 trailing the blades are shown in Fig. 1), to be reduced or sub-divided into fibers or particles, which when small enough to be ejected through the screens 21, will leave the cylinder in the draft of air being displaced. It will be noted that the loosely mounted rings 19 previously referred to will, by reason of inertia and impact forces, tend to shift positions continuously and thereby insure against paper particles piling up on the blades throughout the blade length. The rings 19 clear out accumulations and assist the fragments being thrown outwardly during the sweep of the pusher blades along inner wall surface.

What is claimed is:

1. In a device of the character described, a cylinder having a rough wall surface interiorly thereof and an entry slot extending axially in said wall for the feed in fiat sheet form into the cylinder of dry pulp paper sheet, a bladed rotor mounted for high speed rotation within the cylinder and comprised of axially spaced supports and a pair of radially spaced blades positioned by the supports with the outermost blade in adjacent spaced relation to said rough surface for co-operation therewith in breaking down sheet fragments severed from the flat sheet projected through the slot by the blade into finer particles by sweeping the fragments along the rough surface, a screened outlet controlling the size of particles ejected from the cylinder and one or more rings loosely embracing the innermost of said blades for limited free travel radially toward and away from the outermost blade and axially along the extent of the blades in the space therebetween for dislodging severed fragments and preventing their accumulation on the blades.

2. In a device of the character described, a cylinder having a rough wall surface interiorly thereof and an entry slot extending axially in said Wall and of a width restricted to the feed in fiat dry sheet form into the cylinder of wide and thin pulp paper sheet material to be worked, a bladed rotor mounted for high speed rotation within the cylinder with its peripherally positioned blade in adjacent spaced relation to said rough surface for cooperation therewith in breaking down the paper sheet fragments severed by the blade at the entry slot into finer particles by sweeping the work along the rough surface, a substantially radially disposed air deflector baffle positioned interiorly of the cylinder and immediately below said entry slot in the upward path of air currents resulting from blade rotation to deflect inwardly from the slot the air current resulting from blade rotation and thereby produce a suction through the slot for supporting the sheet from beneath the same and drawing it inwardly of the cylinder and into the path of blade rotation, an outlet for the discharge of worked particles from the cylinder and a replaceable foraminous cover removably positioned over the outlet and whose openings of predetermined size serve to select the fineness of particles discharged at said outlet.

3. In a machine for breaking down sheet material fed thereto into fine particles, a cylinder, a rotor mounted for high speed operation with respect to the cylinder, said rotor including a pair of axially projected and radially spaced apart peripherally located blades arranged to sweep the work along the interior surface of the cylinder and a loosely mounted ring encircling the innermost of said blades and having an internal diameter slightly greater than the width of the encircled innermost blade for free travel radially and axially thereof under centrifugal and inertia forces during rotor rotation and limit stops at axially spaced positions on said innermost blade to define the range of axial travel of said ring, said ring being of a size in relation to the radial space between the blades to restrict outward displacement beyond said space while enabling contact of the ring along the inner portion of the outermost of said blades, the co-operation of the ring with both blades serving to dislodge and prevent accumulation of work particles on the blade assembly.

4. A machine for breaking down dry pulp paper sheet material fed thereto into fine particles including a container having spaced apart inlet and outlet openings, with the inlet opening constituted by a longitudinal slot whose narrow width is restricted to a size slightly in excess of the paper sheet thickness, a high speed bladed rotor mounted for rotation within the container and arranged to present a blade for rotation in a path to sever the extended fiat sheet material projecting through said slot and to sweep the severed particles along the interior wall of the container for reducing the size of the severed work pieces, an inwardly extending air deflector baffle positioned by the container immediately in advance of the inlet slot in relation to the path of air currents resulting from rotor rotation so as to deflect the air currents away from the entry slot and induce circulation of air through the container, with the outward air flow through the outlet carrying along worked particles and the inward air flow through the inlet exerting a feed pull on the sheet material and maintaining the same extended in a fiat plane through the slot until struck by the blade, and power driven feed regulator rolls acting on the sheet material immediately ahead of its entrance into said inlet slot to retard the rate of paper travel under the feed pull exerted by the flow of air.

5. In a machine of the character described, a cylinder having circumferentially spaced apart inlet and outlet openings and a woven Wire screen liner on its inner surface, a high speed rotor including two pairs of longitudinally extending and diametrically spaced blades having paths of travel adjacent said screen liner, with the blades of each pair radially spaced apart and a work clearing ring movably sleeved on one blade of each pair with a working clearance to enable bodily displacement of the ring axis and shift of the ring within said space radially to and from the other blade of the pair.

6. In a machine for breaking down dry pulp paper in thin sheet form, a container having a narrow feed slot of a size restricted for passage of fiat sheet material, a work-performing rotor within the container, an air deflector at the feed slot co-operating with the rotating rotor for inducing an incoming air stream through said feed slot for carrying the sheet material forward, and a power driven sheet engaging feed mechanism for restraining the pull of the air stream in feeding the flat sheet.

7. In a machine to fiberize a dry sheet of pulp paper in dry atmosphere, a horizontally disposed cylinder having a screened discharge opening therefrom and a longitudinal entry slit of a narrow width just suflicient to pass with slight clearance the width of dry sheet paper fed therethrough in the flat plane of the sheet, power driven feed rolls adjacent the entry slit to receive therebetween the paper sheet and regulate its rate of speed into the entry slit, a power driven rotor within the cylinder for sweeping paper fragments along the cylinder interior surface and having a pair of radial supports and a pair of flat blades extending axially between the outer ends of said supports and radially spaced apart with their planes disposed substantially tangentially, and a radially inwardly projected deflector lip on the cylinder bounding the entry slit for co-operation with the rotating rotor for induction of air flow through the entry slit under the paper sheet being fed into the cylinder to maintain sheet tautness from the feed rolls and support the sheet in substantially a flat radial plane relative to the cylinder and normal to the tangentially disposed blades when their leading edges strike the same.

8. In a machine to fiberize a dry sheet of pulp paper in dry atmosphere, a rotor and a cylinder containing the rotor and having an entry slit for dry sheet paper and a screened discharge for dry paper particles broken down from the sheet paper in sweeping the cylinder interior surface during rotor rotation, said rotor comprising a pair of axially spaced radial supports, a pair of radially spaced flat blades extending in tangential planes between said supports, and a clearing ring embracing the inner of said blades and of an internal diameter slightly greater than the width of said inner blade and the radial space between said blades so as to hang loosely for free travel in the space bounded by said blades and said supports.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 12,659 Williams June 4, 1907 808,133 Williams Dec. 26, 1905 945,160 Goetz Jan. 4, 1910 1,038,886 Hirt Sept. 17, 1912 1,235,868 Williams Aug. 7, 1917 1,322,546 Davidson Nov. 25, 1919 1,359,215 Williams Nov. 16, 1920 1,741,573 Kipper Dec. 31, 1929 1,949,534 Doyle Mar. 6, 1934 2,044,531 Kaspar et al June 16, 1936 2,143,068 Hartshorn Jan. 10, 1939 2,393,783 Kridel Jan. 29, 1946 2,532,660 Care Dec. 5, 1950 2,628,786 Piperoux Feb. 17, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 13,257 Great Britain June 7, 1907 113,012 Australia Apr. 30, 1941 

